Lost in translation ?

New Testament Greek as a challenge for the interpreter

Table of contents
1) Space-Time Context 2) NT Greek and its linguistic context Translator tools: concordances, ancient versions and commentaries 3) Word order 4) Verbal aspect and tense

I) What is Koine Greek? Space-Time Context

Main dictionaries: Liddell and Scott, Bailly Over 2,200 pages 1,300 years from Homer to the end of Antiquity At least 6 different dialects: Attic, Ionian, Aeolic, Doric, Epic dialect and Koine

Topolect and chronolect

Topolect: specific kind of language that is only spoken in a particular region
Chronolect: specific kind of language that is only spoken in a particular period

Space-Time Context: New Testament Greek

Near-Eastern Greek topolect, under the influence of Semitic languages (Semiticized Koine ) Middle Koine chronolect (1st-3rd centuries AD)

Idiolects

Specific kind of language that is only spoken or written by a person

Koine language chronolects

Early Koine (3rd 1st centuries BC) Middle Koine (1st-3rd centuries AD) Late Koine (4th 5th centuries AD)

II) NT Greek and its linguistic context

Modern French translator: major task Transposing the text Ancient Greek translator: major task Understanding the text

Difference Modern / Koine Greek

Two languages that have become quite different from each other Compare the difference between modern English and the language of a tenth century poem like Beowulf.

The translators tools. 1. Concordances

Same topolect and chronolect:
Greek Bible (LXX and New Testament) Writings from the Near East (Justin Martyr, the Didach, Theodotions translation, etc.) Papyri texts

The translators tools. 2. Ancient versions

Proto-bohairic > Bohairic version Vetus Latina: African edition > First Italian edition > 2nd Italian edition > Vulgate Diatessaron > Vetus Syra Diatessaron > Peshitta

Jn 8,26 : Ancient versions

Haec loquor in mundo (Vg) blm (Syriac versions) Consensus of all the Syriac, Latin and Bohairic versions

Construction of the verb lalw/

+ Dative : Rom 3 :19 lalw/ tini Pro,j + Accusative : Lk 1,19 lalw/ pro,j tina
Meta, + Genitive : John 4,27 lalw/ meta, tinoj

Jn 8,26 : Modern versions

Virtually all English versions understand : and I speak to the world those things (KJV)

Exceptions: Douay-Rheims Am. Ed. (1899), from the Vg Tyndales NT (1534), a translation that sometimes took into account the Vg

Jn 3,3.7 : Ancient versions

Different reception according to the linguistic community a;nwqen (Jn 3,3.7) Latin versions (denuo) Coptic versions (nkesop) Peshitta and Sinaiticus (mn dr ) from above : Curetonian, Harkleian, Palestinian Syriac lect. (mn ll) Greek fathers of the Church again :

The translators tools. 3. Ancient commentaries

St. John Chrysostom, Galatians Commentary Paul went up to Jerusalem not only to see him but also to him. This is the very word used by people who stare at huge and magnificent cities. This is why Paul thought it worth while going up to Jerusalem for the unique purpose of seeing this man.

III) Word Order

Usual (or neutral) word order: No particular stress on any word
Unusual word order: Stress on the part of the clause affected by the change

John 1,6 and 1,1

1 : past tense copular verb 2 : subject 3 : predicate/ app. 1 : 2 : 3 : predicate past tense copular verb subject

Some English translations of John 1,6

There came a man NA Standard Bible New International version

A man came

New Jerusalem Bible

There was a man King James Bible

Jerome, Epistles 57.5

[in] Scripturis Sanctis () et verborum ordo mysterium est

In Sacred Scripture, even word order

encompasses a mystery

Verbal aspect and tense

Tense: refers to the time in which the verbal event takes place Reference point : the time of speech Verbal aspect: refers to the dynamic of the verbal event, either to its unfolding or to its performance.

Non limiting aspect

Unfolding action , act of speaking as an event in progress, without taking into account its beginning or end >>> UNFOLDED UNFOLDING

Some examples
Mat 12:22 : , : And he healed him, so that the dumb man spoke Acts 4:20 : : For we cannot but speak [on and on] of what we have seen and heard.

Limiting aspect
The defining boundaries of an action have been crossed >>>

Beginning

End

Then will express the simple fact of talking or having talked, without considering the unfolding of the action

By way of example
Lk 1,20 kai. ivdou. e;sh| siwpw/n kai. mh. duna,menoj lalh/sai a;cri h-j h`me,raj ge,nhtai tau/ta And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass

The Our Father

Lc 11,3 to.n a;rton h`mw/n to.n evpiou,sion di,dou h`mi/n to. kaqV h`me,ran Give us every day this bread of ours which is epiousios Mt 6,11 to.n a;rton h`mw/n to.n evpiou,sion do.j h`mi/n sh,meron

Give us today this bread of ours which is epiousios

First etymology of evpiou,sioj

[] [] : [the day] coming after. : pres. part. of : to come after. give us enough bread to be able to get to the day after give us the bread for everyday, the daily bread

Second etymology of evpiou,sioj

, which means both [living] on means of subsistence. and [what is] above the substance a) give us the bread for our subsistence b) give us the transcendent (or sublime) Bread.

Ancient versions
Lc 11,3 to.n a;rton h`mw/n to.n evpiou,sion di,dou h`mi/n to. kaqV h`me,ran Vg cotidianum Bohairic ethneou coming Mt 6,11 to.n a;rton h`mw/n to.n evpiou,sion do.j h`mi/n sh,meron

Vg supersubstantialem Bohairic nte rast of tomorrow

Epiousios bread: other traditions

Constancy Ancient syriac trad. amina (Sinaiticus, Curetonian) Necessity Recent syriac trad. desunqonn, sunqonyn (Pesh., Harcl.) Abundance Syropalestinian dtryn ou dwtr (cf. periousias)

Useful Bibliography: dictionaries

Liddell, H. G. and R. Scott, A GreekEnglish Lexicon. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1940 (9th edition, frequently reprinted) J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament illustrated from the papyri and other nonliterary sources, Hodder ad Stoughton, London 1914-1929.

Other tools
P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire tymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire des mots. Paris: Klincksieck, 1999. J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of New Testament Greek. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1906-1976.